Two
of Tokyo’s leading party promoters, Groove
Kitchen and Soul City
Industries, are combining forces with dubwise PlayLabel to launch Euphonic this Sunday. The new party, slated for the freshly
relocated and expanded club Core
in Roppongi, will feature Detroit force Stacey
Pullen as its headlining DJ.

The party will capture the increasingly international face of club
life in Tokyo, with Groove Kitchen and Soul City Industries headed
respectively by an American and a Canadian, Play label by an Englishman,
and the slate of DJs representing countries from Korea to England.

While Detroit DJs from Derrick
May to Juan Atkins have long been treated as demigods among the techno
faithful in Japan, Stacey Pullen is less well-known. Perhaps that’s
because he interrupted his career to pursue a college degree, returning to
the scene when his Detroit peers had already established themselves.

Nonetheless, Pullen was soon able to create a name for himself in
the ’90s with a slew of releases for prestigious techno imprints like
Detroit’s Transmat and
Belgium’s R&S, as well as
majors BMG, Warner and Virgin. His
signature take on the Detroit sound is jazz-centric, finding expression in
his first full-length for Transmat, Silent
Phase. Subsequent releases have included Electronic Poetry and, most recently, Today Is The Tomorrow You Were Promised Yesterday.

The party will also feature a full slate of artists from
Tokyo-based dub label Play, including Quiro
Pro, Khuv, Bongoloid, Spirit
Jack and Play A&R man Jeff
Hammond’s own unit Quante
Jubila. Another Play contributor, veteran techno/house DJ and Sublime
artist Susumu Yokota, will be
on hand as DJ, as will Soul City Industries' DJs Higherfrequency, Cloud, Takaya
and Mono.

Filling out the Euphonic roster will be Korean techno unit Gazabal,
making their Japan debut. Meaning “lobster’s claws” in Korean,
Gazabal is comprised of Jin-Won Yi
and DJ New-Xuck, who met in New
York in 1998 and returned to Korea to pursue a career. They have released
a series of aggressive dancefloor tracks for dms
Trax/Sony in Korea, as well as supporting Dave Seaman and Timo Maas
in Seoul…

Another upcoming event with an international flavor is Want
You, which will be taking place for a third time at the venerable Club
Asia in Shibuya. Sounds will range from two-step to house and tribal
house, with guest DJ Young Richard from New York conjuring the underground vibes of the
Big Apple.

A veteran resident of legendary New York clubs like Tunnel
and Save The Robots, Young
Richard relocated to Tokyo a few years ago and has been an active DJ
around town since then.

Speaking with Metropolis, Groove Kitchen’s Marcellus
and Young Richard reflected on life as foreigners in Tokyo’s club scene.
Both described difficulties in gaining acceptance (using similar off-color
references to “kissing behinds”) but seemed to think the effort
worthwhile. Marcellus spoke of the problems that come “when we as
foreigners try to move out of the club world and into the business
sector,” saying, “it’s almost impossible for a foreign guy to make
waves unless he has something powerful as a backup, like a strong brand
name.” Young Richard, meanwhile, described Japan as being, “slow with
new ideas and faces,” but granted that “New York and Tokyo are the
same in that respect.”